Jailed anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, facing extradition to Costa Rica for a decade-old attempted murder charge, will be released on bail Monday.

Canadian animal rights and environmental activist Paul Watson is being released from a Frankfurt jail next Monday.

By:Josh TapperStaff Reporter, Published on Fri May 18 2012

Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, facing extradition to Costa Rica for a decade-old attempted murder charge, will be released on bail from a Frankfurt jail next Monday.

German authorities arrested the Toronto-born president and founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society last Sunday on an international arrest warrant issued by Costa Rica.

Watson’s bail is set at 250,000 Euros (roughly $325,000), according to Frankfurt’s higher regional court. The money has been donated by a Sea Shepherd supporter, spokesperson Peter Hammarstedt said.

Yet the court granted a preliminary extradition arrest warrant to Costa Rica, meaning Watson must remain in Germany until the conclusion of the extradition proceedings, which could last 90 days. The case will now go before the Ministry of Justice.

“This is unheard of almost in extradition proceedings involving foreign nationals,” Hammarstedt said.

In 2002, Watson allegedly tried to intimidate and kill the crew of a Costa Rican fishing boat, the Varadero, which Sea Shepherd said was illegally cutting shark fins off the coast of Guatemala. The incident appeared in the award-winning 2007 documentary Sharkwater.

A Costa Rican judge initially dismissed the charges after documentary footage revealed no wrong-doing. The charges, however, were re-issued in October, 2011.

Before he was arrested, Watson, 61, had been en route to Paris to promote the French-language book Interview with a Pirate, its author and Sea Shepherd France president Lamya Essemlali told the Star earlier this week.

In the days since Watson’s arrest, Sea Shepherd, known for its violent encounters with whalers and poachers, has waged a virulent campaign against its founder’s detainment and what it calls Costa Rica’s “bogus allegations.”

The organization has called a day of action on May 23 to coincide with the Costa Rican president’s visit to Germany.

In a handwritten statement published Thursday on Sea Shepherd’s website, Watson thanked supporters: “I know that with your support Germany will not send me to what will most certainly be a death sentence in Costa Rica.”